SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — Costs and delays continue to increase for the work to restore daily passenger service between Los Angeles and San Diego.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports weekday service is now not expected to resume until sometime in April, while the cost to stabilize a hillside in San Clemente has risen to at least $13.7 million from a previous estimate of $12 million.
Regular operation of Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliners, as well as Metrolink service to Oceanside, Calif., was suspended at the end of September [see “Pacific Surfliner, Metrolink halt operations …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 30, 2022]. Weekend service through the area resumed Feb. 4 after instruments showed the initial stabilization work, which involves drilling ground anchors into the bedrock beneath the hillside, had stopped the slow-moving landside. Service remains suspended on weekdays to allow the stabilization work to continue.
The new cost estimate, presented at a Monday meeting of the Orange County Transportation Authority board, does not include costs still being negotiated with landowners for the right-of-way needed for the stabilization devices, or permitting and potential mitigation that may be required by the California Coastal Commission.
The interruption through San Clemente was initially estimated to last 60 days. It has slowly continued to be pushed back; the most recent estimate had called for resumption in March [see “Rainy weather delays efforts …,” News Wire, Jan. 10, 2023].
This could be one of those decades-long efforts.
Similar to UP’s sink hole along the Sunset route? Going on for how many tears?